


Best Dressed, Fearless

by k_itsmay



Category: Alice Nine
Genre: Add more later - Freeform, Alternate Universe - High School, Band Fic, Friendship, Gen, Male Friendship, Slice of Life, Teenage Drama, Teenage Rebellion, uh
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-14
Updated: 2016-08-14
Packaged: 2018-08-08 16:20:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,783
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7764682
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/k_itsmay/pseuds/k_itsmay
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Murai Naoyuki waltzed into Sakamoto Takashi’s school (and his life, essentially) like it was nothing. Yet, it seemed the short, round-faced new kid gave Sakamoto more than the people in his school he called his friends ever could. And it seems he is not the last one either.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Best Dressed, Fearless

**Author's Note:**

> for some reason out of all the things i could work on i started a new series?? ((i have a test tomorrow and i'm gonna die)) anyway, hi! this is my very first A9 related fic. hope u guys enjoy it~

Sakamoto crossed the street towards the school with his head down and hands shoved in his pockets underneath his creased, tucked-out shirt. Outside the wide front of the school building was a broad shouldered teacher standing upright with crossed arms, eyes thoroughly scanning the students that walked past the black gate. Shooting his eyes to another student walking near his side, Sakamoto quietly sped up the pace of his feet to match theirs.

He held his breath, _here it comes._

With the other student blocking him from the teacher’s line of sight, he passed the school gate, and began to walk even quicker than before. The wooden floors and shoe lockers of the entrance came into sight, until suddenly a voice boomed behind him. “Sakamoto!” He sunk into his small shoulders and practically began to scurry past. “Oi! Sakamoto! You’ve got the wrong belt on again! And tuck your shirt in!”

His heart continued to race even after he swapped his shoes and entered his classroom upstairs. In the back corner next to the window his Friends stared at him, smirks painted on their faces.

“Got caught by Mr Takahashi again, huh?” they said, big mouthed and mockingly. “You’ve gotten better though, you used to actually tell him you would change yourself,” they laughed.

Sakamoto turned the corner of his lips upwards. “For a teacher that won’t shut up about individual expression, he sure is repressing mine.” He set his bag down on his desk.

“Eh? He says stuff like that?!” They burst into cackling laughter. “Didn’t even listen! That guy’s way too old to be telling us what to do, probably why he’s not married.”

Sakamoto thinned his lips and looked towards his desk as his Friends laughed. He felt his heart sink, and sometime after they returned to their desks as the bell chimed through the halls. Sakamoto threw his chair back, legs dragging across the wooden floors before dropping down on his seat, not even bothering to avoid sitting on the thin silver chains attached to his pocket and belt.

Through the front door of the classroom Mr Takahashi walked in. “Please take your seats, everyone. Homeroom is starting.” He spread his hands across the ends of the podium and leaned his weight on them while his eyes drifted around the classroom. For a moment they lay on Sakamoto, and immediately the boy slouched down in his chair and stared at his hands.

Mr Takahashi took a deep breath. “For those of you who don’t know, we’ll be having a new student joining us today.” He turned his head towards the open classroom door with a smile, “You can come in and introduce yourself now.”

The students began to whisper amongst themselves. Into the classroom walked a short boy, paying not a single mind to the ready-to-judge voices around him with his school bag held from one hand like a briefcase. He stepped onto the wooden platform in front of the blackboard and picked up a piece of white chalk. A glance towards Mr Takahashi, and a nod from him later, the boy stretched his arm up and silently wrote his name on the board.

Finally, he turned around to face the class. “My name is Murai Naoyuki. I moved to Tokyo last month from Hokkaido. It’s nice to meet you all.”

The round-faced boy politely bowed his head to the class as they applauded him. He straightened up, and Mr Takahashi gestured his hand towards an empty seat in the second row from the back. “There’s a spare seat over there,” he said. He raised his head and called out across the classroom, “Sakamoto, be nice to him, okay?”

“’Kay.” The skinny boy crossed his legs. He watched the new kid walk towards him with a bright smile on his face, top button on his shirt done up and tie all nice and proper. The guy already made Sakamoto want to puke.

Naoyuki pulled his chair out quietly while Mr Takahashi turned to face the blackboard. As he sat down in the seat, his smile widened upon seeing Sakamoto behind him. “I hope we can be friends, Sakamoto.”

He wasn’t going to last long, Sakamoto thought. “Yeah, sure.”

As it went every Monday morning, Mr Takahashi would tell them to take their novels out and turn to whatever stupid page they were up to. And then, he would take a few seconds to scan the room. Whose eyes were drooping to sleep? Which distracted mind was he going to pick on that time? Most of the time, he would then say, “Sakamoto, you can read first.”

And so he did.

“Sorry, don’t have it.”

Mr Takahashi sighed, “And why not?”

Sakamoto’s voice caught in his throat as he mumbled, “Forgot it.”

“What was that?”

He silenced.

Eyes around the classroom began to stare at him - most of them, at least. The good boys and girls around the room with nicely combed hair and ironed uniforms narrowed their eyes at him, while his Friends glanced at him with smirks. The rest, literally only two people, plus the new kid, continued to stare out the window or at the pages into space.

“Murai, would you like to take his place?”

He nodded and stood up without a word. He skimmed his eyes through the page, took a deep breath, then began to read aloud.

Sakamoto knew exactly how it was, and how it was going to go down. The new kid, Murai Naoyuki, was a goody two shoes who would do anything and everything the teachers told him. He probably moved to Tokyo to live near some good universities, so he would study his butt off and not bother with friends or clubs. Then, he would either vanish and never be noticed by anyone again, or at least one of his Friends would bully him, depending on what they were feeling. Either way, he wasn’t going to be happy whatsoever. Sakamoto almost felt sorry for him. Though, it wasn’t like he himself was happy either.

Naoyuki finished the passage and sat back down in his seat.

Sakamoto suddenly felt a twist in his gut. Why did it have to be like that? He furrowed his eyebrows. Since when did he make such stupid assumptions about people?

“Amano, you can go next.”

There was a groan in the back corner of the classroom and the scraping of chair legs against wooden floors.

It seemed like his Friends were rubbing into him. Whatever, that Naoyuki kid would probably find some friends eventually among the nerds in the class. That would be the end of it.

“What significance does this particular line have to the purpose of the text, Ohara?”

If only his school days could pass by as quietly and peacefully he predicted Naoyuki’s would.

The recess bell rang through the classroom and immediately chairs were pushed out of desks and voices filled the room. At the front of the classroom, Mr Takahashi dropped his book onto the podium, “Make sure you read the next chapter for homework.” He raised his chin, “Sakamoto, come to the teachers’ office with me.”

Sakamoto glanced towards the back of his Friends’ heads, then stood up and walked out the door with him.

Mr Takahashi strode through the hallway past bustling students, with Sakamoto dragging his feet behind him. His homeroom teacher ran his hands along and around the plain white polo tucked into his trousers before opening the door to the teacher’s office. He began to navigate through the maze of desks, and sat down on his chair as soon as they reached it.

For a few seconds, Mr Takahashi ran his thick fingers through his short, spiky hair, leaving Sakamoto standing next to him in silence. He then took off his thinly rimmed glasses and placed them onto his desk.

“Sakamoto,” he looked up at his student, “Has anything been happening with you lately?”

The skinny boy shrugged, “Dunno what you’re talking about.”

Mr Takahashi’s eyes dropped back to his desk next to him and frowned, the slightest wrinkles appearing on his forehead. “Sakamoto, I don’t know how to put this, but…” he tapped his fingers, “This is the second year in a row I’ve been your homeroom teacher, and let me say this, you were nothing like this last year.”

Sakamoto gulped. “But my grades are doing just fine.”

“This isn’t about your grades, Sakamoto,” he said sharply. “Don’t try to play dumb with me. You and I both know you’ve been keeping up with your studies just fine.” He turned in his chair and rest his elbows on his knees. “Your grades aren’t the problem. It’s…” A breath was held in his chest, and finally Mr Takahashi let it out with his words, “It’s your behaviour, let’s put it that way.”

His eyes shot towards the door on his left and back. “Sorry, I don’t know what you’re talking about.” His palms began to sweat in his pockets. “I’ve never made any kind of disturbance in class and as far as I’m aware there are plenty of people with worse attire than mine–”

Mr Takahashi looked at up at Sakamoto dead in the eyes, “I know what you and your friends say about me.”

Sakamoto’s face paled. “I…I didn’t…They’re not–”

“You’re not like this, I know it.” He sat back up in his chair. “Sakamoto, my daughter is in middle school, and there are plenty of people her age beginning to rebel against their parents or teachers. It’s just a part of growing up for some people, I get it. But,” he sighed heavily, “you’re in your third year of high school, you should be past that. And you were last year, but you’ve changed, Sakamoto. This is the time you especially need to be responsible, and if you keep going down this path pretending to be cool and unreasonably barking back at the people you should be listening to it’s going to–”

“Nothing about me has changed, sir!”

Mr Takahashi fell silent, and Sakamoto breathed heavily in front of him. In the corner of his eye he spotted the other teachers looking their way. He turned his body to his desk, “I’m not giving up on you. If there’s anything bothering you, please tell me.” He looked at Sakamoto again, “Go back to class now.”

Sakamoto spun around and swiftly exited through the door. As he turned the corner, his shoulder bumped into another and both boys were sent stumbling. He turned his head around and saw a short boy with spiky dirty blonde hair.

“Sorry, my bad,” the boy said before rubbing his shoulder and walking into the office.

**Author's Note:**

> this idea came from an old interview i read, where Saga was talking abt how he and Nao first met and he had a bit of a “where have you been all my life?” feeling, and according to fan reports of the ALTERNATIVE S2 live on Nao’s birthday he was talking about that which i found very nice :D so this series was basically inspired by Nao and Saga’s friendship (at least an AU version) and i decided to merge it with the Shukanshuutou/Number Six PVs (apparently Blue Flame is also connected but idk if i can deal with the content in that yet also that wld mean angst galore but wHO KNOWS) so all the members of A9 are in!!
> 
> also yes another series titled under a phrase in a taylor swift song i am sorry  
> even though?? it has?? literally 0 relevance to the actual lyrics??
> 
> also i’m sorry abt all the names, so far i’ve been using their alleged real names that are closest to their stage names in narration (but i will use their stage names in the story later) so basically  
> Saga: Sakamoto  
> Nao: Naoyuki (Murai in dialogue)  
> Tora: Amano  
> Shou: Ohara  
> Hiroto: Hiroto (Ogata in dialogue)
> 
> also, if you're wondering why i keep referring to Saga's 'friends' with a capital F, i kind of wrote them to be one entity where none of them in particular are identified. this is what happens when i think creative (i'm not)


End file.
